Dressed in purple, Debbie Morton headed out for a walk in Kimball Junction Saturday morning with a particular purpose: to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s.
Morton said the disease runs in her family — her dad and his brother both had Alzheimer’s, as did three of their first cousins. She said she and her brother also have the double APOE4 gene, which studies have shown may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
“I really want to find a cure for at least the next generation, I don't know whether or not there'll be a cure for my generation,” she said.
She joined nearly 450 others, most in purple T-shirts, for the walk along state Route 224 in front of the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter. It was part of the Wasatch Back chapter’s 2025 Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
Many of the walkers carried orange, yellow, purple and blue plastic flowers that spun like pinwheels in the breeze.
Each color represented the reason someone chose to donate and walk. Those with orange flowers were there to support the cause, those with yellow flowers were caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. For those who had lost a loved one to a memory-related disease, the flowers were purple. Only a handful of people carried blue flowers — showing they are living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia.
Organizers say they eventually want to add a fifth flower to the garden: white to represent survivors of Alzheimer’s.
Intermittent drops of rain began to fall as participants began the two-mile walk starting at the Newpark Amphitheater in Kimball Junction.
Morton walked with her team of around 10. They raised the most money, totaling over $45,000, and Morton personally raised almost $22,000.
Morton said memory disorders are one of the most difficult things to experience, both for those who have them and their loved ones who have to watch them gradually slip away.
“My dad was a very accomplished Air Force pilot for 24 years. He had a second career designing homes, building homes, and he was just so frustrated because he would know things, and then he couldn't, he couldn't do them,” she said.
After Morton’s father passed away, she said she moved to Park City and began volunteering for a program called Music and Memory. Organized by Jewish Family Services, the program’s volunteers interview the family members of someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia to find out what kind of music their loved one enjoyed. Then, they put together a playlist, put headphones on the patient and hit play.
“You could walk into the room and person might be sitting there drooling in a chair, and you'd put the headphones on, and they would smile and laugh and really come back,” Morton said.
She recalled one patient whose son would often visit and try to talk to him. The son would try reading to his dad, pointing out things outside the window, but his father wouldn’t respond most of the time. Not knowing what else to do, the son would leave.
“I would take the music, his headphones, and put on the headphones and say, ‘Hey, pops, do you want to dance?’ And he would dance, and he would smile. He just put this huge smile on his face,” Morton said. “Music is the last thing that you lose in your memory.”
Morton is now taking steps to help prevent herself from developing Alzheimer’s. She joined an Alzheimer prevention movement that helps women devise a plan to slow down the disease. It includes eating healthy, exercising and stimulating her brain.
And for anyone who has a loved one who has a memory disorder, Morton had this advice:
“The best thing you can do is just love them as much as you can and be patient and definitely, definitely enroll in a caretaker support group,” she said.
As of Saturday, the Wasatch Back chapter had raised almost $182,000 to support the fight to end Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases. Its goal is to raise $191,000 by the end of the year.
